Paris—After the May 6 Greek elections, which saw the routing of the two major parties that have alternated power since the end of the military dictatorship, a Greek explained, “I voted against Pasok [the Socialist party], because they failed to provide a job to my daughter who holds an engineering degree.” In this country known since ancient Athens as “The Mother of Democracy,” the sacred concept of demokratia, or rule by the people, has been profaned. The following month, another set of elections failed to give Greece the working majority it desperately needed to form a coalition of the traditional center-right and left parties and relaunch its moribund economy, too long fed with European Union subsidies. Nor has it succeeded in restoring faith in a democratic process undermined by corruption—endemic at every level of society.

The present economic and social crisis that has enveloped Greece is hardly the only...

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